Canberra Quilters is the oldest quilting guild in Australia and some of our members are world renowned quilters.

They all started as beginners! Some had no experience of sewing. Some thought they had no artistic talent.

Others of us are happy making quilts for our family and friends. What ever level you want to achieve, why not start now? We would love you to enrol in our Introduction to Patchwork and Quilting taster day to be held in our room at the Cook Community Hub.

We are hoping to unlock your creativity and start you on the road to a ‘beautiful obsession’.

WHEN- Saturday 20th May 9:30am – 3pm

COST- $25 and includes morning tea

WHERE- Building C, 41 Templeton St, Cook ACT

The programme will look at:

Different styles of patchwork, blocks, appliqué, strips, hexies etc.

Useful equipment

Fabric choices and colour

Construction of quilt

Quilting

If you are ready to learn more:-

We will show you how to turn your first blocks into your first quilt, or

Point you to some of the region’s amazing teachers and their beginners’ courses.

For more information or to enrol email Canberra Quilters Workshop Coordinator, Valerie Merritt.

CraftAlive is on 5-7 May 2017 at the Thoroughbred Park Function and Convention Centre, Flemington Road Mitchell, ACT. Canberra Quilters will be there, selling raffle tickets and showing the world what we get up to.

At each show, CraftAlive hosts Quilts of Hope, who support Challenge, a not-for-profit organisation that provides daily support for children and families living with cancer, or a life-threatening blood disorder, from the time of diagnosis through treatment and beyond. Through their programs and services, they aim to make life easier for the whole family as they deal with fighting their illness.

Quilts of Hope are calling on generous quilters and patchworkers to donate their time to create patchwork blocks that will be made into quilts and auctioned off or donated to support this worthy cause.

There will be a Quilts of Hope display at CraftAlive Canberra, with Echidna Sewing providing machines for use at the stand.

CraftAlive are generously offering free multi day passes for the rest of the show to any of our members interested in sewing for an hour or so on the stand throughout the weekend.

Come along and visit the Canberra Quilters stand at the CAP EXPO (Old Bus Depot Markets), this Saturday, 25 March, 11 am to 4pm. It is a fun day, with lots of interesting stands, food and entertainment. We hope to see you there.

There is a fifth Wednesday in June and an extra drop-in has been scheduled if you want to use the room. It is warm when we turn the heaters on and there is plenty of light. Come along to sew, work out something using the design wall, pin a quilt on the basting table or just to have a chat.

And don’t forget – if you were thinking about making a small drawstring bag, it only takes an hour. Plus the time you spend digging through your fabrics! The promised instructions for the drawstring bag are here.

Wendy Saclier will bring some Japanese fabrics along for sale. Proceeds will go to a charity.

You can also get some ideas for scarves using Japanese fabric, on the Ann Williamson website

Canberra Quilters is hosting a Biggest Morning Tea Quilting Bee on Sunday 29 May, from 10am-2pm in the Cook Community Hub Hall. A tax deductable entry fee of $5 is payable at the door (or you can donate a larger sum). All proceeds go to the ACT Cancer Council for cancer research.

There is a monster raffle as well as a quilt raffle and lucky door prize. Lots of fun and games- including quilt bingo! White elephant stall of used & older items.

It would be great if you could bring a plate of food to share at morning tea- savoury or sweet.

The theme is hexies, so you can wear a hexi in some way – hat, brooch, earrings or clothes; or bring a hexi, hide a hexi! Bring a needle and black and white thread to sew some hexies during the day. These will be made into a fund raising quilt.

There is a cake competition, which will be judged by 3 semi-independent foodies. Bribery by $$ permitted, but not guaranteed. Cook your delights for all to share and you may win a prize.

Donations of new items for the monster raffle are welcome- place in the blue bin in the CQ storeroom or give to co-ordinator Kay. Donations of used/ older items for the white elephant table are also welcome. They can be made on the day.

The next Wonderful Wednesday meeting is on 20 April, 9.30am- 12.30pm in the hall at the Cook Community Hub.

All the usual fun – morning tea, raffle, lucky door and name badge draw. The special themed show and tell is most loved quilts. Perhaps these quilts are a bit worn due to their use but still worthy of being shown off.

There will also be a display of books, magazines and patterns that were available in the early years of Canberra Quilters. Come along for some nostalgia (like the Mission Brown quilt in the banner).

Come along and visit the Canberra Quilters stand at the CAP EXPO (Old Bus Depot Markets), this Saturday, 19 March. It is a fun day, with lots of interesting stands, food and entertainment. We hope to see you there.

The Modern Quilt group will meet tonight in the CQ room, starting at 7.30pm. Tonight’s activity:

Jenny will be demonstrating a very simple system for an organic curved block. If people want to try it they can bring some 6 1/2 inch squares in colours they like. Half the squares could be considered background. It works particularly well with batiks.

Bring your show and tell, as usual, and your machines if you want to try what Jenny is showing. Or you can just watch the demonstration and try it at home.